It is a feud that has garnered nationwide attention. The battle
between Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and Disney takes a new
turn. The House of Mouse now taking legal action against the
governor. Disney, the parent company of ABC, filing a lawsuit
against Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. The Mouse House
dealing another blow to Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, Disney
ditching its plan to build a billion-dollar office complex in
Lake Nona. Pinning one of the world's most beloved companies..
This is about one thing and one thing only and that's
retaliating against us for taking a position about pending
legislation. Against one of the nation's most popular
governors.. You're a corporation based in Burbank, California,
and you're gonna martial your economic might to attack the
parents of my state? So just what exactly is behind this
feud? What's at stake for both Ron DeSantis and Bob Iger? And
which side will ultimately come out on top?
The feud between Ron DeSantis and Disney really started in
2022 when the company came forward against the so called
"Don't Say Gay" bill which prohibited Florida public
schools from teaching sexual orientation to kids in
kindergarten through third grade. We will make sure that
parents can send their kids to school to get an education, not
an indoctrination. Then-Disney CEO Bob Chapek largely remained
silent at first, declining to take a stance. But after
mounting public pressure, he released a company-wide memo to
employees writing in part, as we have seen time and again,
corporate statements do very little to change outcomes or
minds. And that, quote, the best way for our company to bring
about lasting change is through the inspiring content we
produce. That memo was not well received at Disney. There was
immediate pushback, and it was all over social media. It was
basically seen as though Bob Chapek had not taken a stand for
the LGBTA community. After facing intense backlash for his
initial statement, Bob Chapek released a second statement days
later, saying in part, it is clear that this is not just an
issue about a bill in Florida, but instead yet another
challenge to basic human rights. You needed me to be a stronger
ally in the fight for equal rights. And I let you down. I am
sorry. When he did that and sort of waffled a little bit, you
know, in terms of messaging. DeSantis pounced on it and he
called Disney woke. Our policy is going to be based on the best
interest of Florida citizens, not on the musing of woke
corporations.
And in April of 2022 DeSantis took things a step further,
signing a bill into law that would officially strip Disney of
a special self-governing status in the area around its Orlando
theme parks, then known as the Reedy Creek Improvement
District. Since then, Bob Chapek has been fired as the Disney CEO
and Bob Iger has returned. That's where the DeSantis-Iger
feud begins. With CEO Bob Iger back at the helm, Disney began
to go on the offensive, filing a lawsuit in federal court in
April against Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and other officials
alleging a "targeted campaign of government retaliation." About a
year ago the company took a position on pending Florida
legislation. And while the company may have not handled the
position that it took very well, a company has a right to freedom
of speech just like individuals do. And obviously in taking the
position, the governor got very angry about the position Disney
took and seems like he's decided to retaliate against us,
including the naming of a new board to oversee the property
and the business, in effect to seek to punish a company for its
exercise of a constitutional right. In response, less than a
week after Disney's lawsuit, the newly appointed local governing
board voted in May to sue Disney in state court. And in the
latest turn of events, Disney just announced it would not be
moving forward with plans to build a roughly $1 billion
office complex in Lake Nona.
Disney is the largest taxpayer in Florida. It has said it plans
on investing $17 billion in the coming years, in the greater
Walt Disney World theme park area. It pays more than a
billion dollars each year in taxes to Florida. We have over
75,000 employees which I noted in my opening, countless
thousands of indirect
jobs have been created. About 50 million visitors will go through
our gates this year alone, about 8 million of them from outside
the US. And we are the largest taxpayer in the state.
Superficially, that would be a bizarre punching bag. Like
that's not the entity that you want to make your enemy because
if you're the governor of Florida, you're so reliant on
Disney and also just in general, like, you really want to pick a
fight with Walt Disney World? But Ron DeSantis did just that,
giving oversight of the special district to his own appointees,
known as the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District. The
reason why the legislature had to act was not because of
anything we did. It was basically born out of Disney's
arrogance, that they would be able to subcontract around the
duly enacted laws of the state of Florida. That's wrong. The
special tax district where Disney is located is really now
governed by a board of all DeSantis appointees. These
people were handpicked by the governor himself to really rein
in Disney's self governing abilities at it. So the board
itself is meant to really take on the company through a
government entity. And so far there have been threats of
possibly building a prison next to Disney, all after the company
came forward against the so called "Don't Say Gay" bill. I
think the reason this is happening is that Ron DeSantis
is not your typical governor. He's planning on running for
president in 2024. And he's decided that he's going to make
these culture wars a major part of his presidential campaign.
Bob Iger for his part has tried to set the record straight
regarding special districts in Florida. This is not about
special privileges, or a level playing field, or Disney in any
way using its leverage around the state of Florida. There are
about 2000 special districts in Florida. And most were
established to foster investment in development, where we were
one of them. It basically made it easier for us, and others by
the way, to do business in Florida. So while it's easy to
say that the Reedy Creek special district that was established
for us over 50 years ago benefited us, it's misleading to
not also consider how much Disney benefited the state of
Florida. And we're also we're not the only company operating a
special district. I mentioned 2000, the Daytona Speedway, it
has one. So do The Villages, which is a prominent retirement
community and there are countless others.
The stakes now are much higher, because they're in court in two
different jurisdictions. They're in federal court where Disney
sued, and they're in state court where the board that was
appointed by DeSantis has sued Disney. Disney has a pretty
strong case. Just on the practicalities of it. DeSantis
and the Florida legislature are trying to punish Disney for
speaking up very mildly about a law in Florida. Disney is
actually making several different arguments, no matter
what is ordinarily okay, you can't take an action to punish a
private entity because of its speech. As for Governor
DeSantis, the state's argument may be on shaky legal ground.
The argument that they have is that Disney always got special
treatment. Whether or not that's true, to revoke it as
retaliation for you know, expressing a political opinion
is a serious problem. And if a court were to embrace a broader
rule, which is, sure, go ahead and legislate whenever you don't
like what a company is saying, I think that would be a very
strong signal, among other things, to businesses, you know,
stay out of Florida. But none of this has ever deterred the
governor, in part because of his strong support amongst
Republicans in the Sunshine State. I'm definitely on
DeSantis aside, go woke, go broke. I think that renewing our
annual passes shows that we're supporting them. And I'm not
supporting them or their beliefs in what they're trying to do.
There are other polls that have suggested that this fight
against Disney is part of the Republican Party's fight against
you know, culture wars, and getting involved with things
like that is actually a real net positive for Republican primary
voters. In this recent March poll conducted by the University
of North Florida, DeSantis enjoyed a much higher
favorability rating when compared to Disney among the GOP
base. About 87% of Republican voters said they found DeSantis
to be either very favorable or somewhat favorable. When the
same poll of voters was asked about Disney, only about 27%
said they found the company either very favorable or
somewhat favorable. So if and when and likely when Ron
DeSantis runs for president, this battle with Disney
could end up helping him in the primary. But questions
remain.. how will this translate to the general electorate?
Even if he pulls this off and uses this kind of culture war
against Disney, as a way to become the Republican nominee
for president, there's still a lot of questions as how this is
this going to really appeal to independent voters swing state
voters in a general election?
This is more of a political issue than it is a Disney
financial or business issue. This isn't particularly going to
be a stock mover for Disney, it is definitely an annoyance.
Iger believes that he has the moral high ground here. And in
past comments, he's been very clear about how he believes that
Disney was retaliated against for expressing a political
opinion on the Florida legislation.
Any action that thwarts those efforts simply to retaliate for
a position the company took, sounds not just anti-business,
but it sounds anti-Florida.
DeSantis, meanwhile, is showing no signs of backing down.
We fought very hard for children. We have a fundamental
disagreement in this state in terms of what we think is
appropriate for children and what the people in Burbank,
California think is appropriate for children.
So you may have to get into a little bit of a legal
machinations here on how they're going to resolve this and what
the ultimate long game is here for Disney. From a
political standpoint, Disney may gain just as many points as
DeSantis feels like he's gaining by not making this go away.
For now, as both sides wait for the legal process to play itself
out the war of words between the Florida governor and Disney
continue.
We're not going to let them try to impose the idea of gender
fluidity on our kids, particularly our young
elementary school kids. And if Disney doesn't like that, well
here I stand I am not backing down one inch. I am going to do
what's right. And we are going to make sure we're standing up
for our children.
We operate responsibly, we pay our fair share of taxes, we
employ thousands of people. So I'm going to finish what is
obviously kind of a long answer by asking one question: does the
state want us to invest more, employ more people, and pay more
taxes, or not?